Model Train

My latest  hobby.

I bought  this model train set from the US a few months ago. Recently I set it up under the Christmas tree. Then I watched a video on how to make a  house  using card board  and I tried it out.

There it is, I have my veyy own train running around.  The children like it.

This  is the famous Santa Fe model train.

Famous teapot by Gu Zingzhou

This is a teapot made by Gu Zingzhou in the 1950s. It was reported that he made a total of 5 such teapots and he got the famous artist Wu Hufan painted on them. He then gave them away to the artist and other famous artists of the time such as Tang Yun. He himself kept one.

This teapot is a modification of a design by Chen Mansheng, a Scholar in the late Qing dynasty. Chen himself was not a potter, but a magistrate who liked Yixing tea-ware. As such, he engaged the famous potter of the time,  Yang Pengnien and his sister to make the teapots he had designed.

I don't quite like the original design by Chen as I felt that the mouth of the teapot was a bit small. The overall teapot is lacking in style and elegance. Gu's modified design looks grand and rich in shape and contour. Of course with the engraving of a famous artist, this teapot is unique in itself. It represented the works of two famous masters of the time.

Chen Mansheng's teapot

The Gu Zingzhou's teapot was auctioned a few years ago in China for millions of RMB.

Interestingly, I also own such a teapot (of course not by Gu Zingzhou). I did not buy from any shops. It was left behind by a tenant (from China) who rented my apartment a few years ago. It was put inside a cupboard. Obviously, when the tenant moved out, he could have forgotten that there was a teapot he left behind in the cupboard.

As I do not have such a teapot design in my collection, I gladly kept it for myself. 

Teapot left behind by someone

White Tea

Recently, I have tasted some white tea and found it to be quite pleasant and smooth to drink.

In the past, I did have some white tea but did not enjoyed it as much. I was told that people in Hong Kong like this tea very much. In fact my first sample of the white tea (Shou Mei) was given to me by a colleague from Hong Kong some twenty over years ago. As I did not quite like the tea, I threw it away. What a waste, the tea could have been very nice now if I kept it (May be I was too engrossed with puerh and neglected this tea). Any way, it is not too late to discover this tea and start enjoying it (or collecting it). 

White tea has been around for many years. It was mainly exported to countries in the west as locals found it  to be expensive especially the high grade type of white tea known as Yin Zhen (Silver Needle). The lesser grade such as Bai Mutan and Shou Mei are really quite affordable. White tea comes form the province of Fujian where farmers plant the tea along hilly slopes several hundred feet above sea level. Good tea is almost invariable harvested before the rainy season in March where the leaves are fresh and lively. The tea is processed in a traditional way using sunlight to dry and wither the leaves before packaging it into various forms like loose tea or compressed tea.

It is said that white tea can be kept and it matures over the years. The first three years the tea will develop its medicinal value and after 7 years the tea will become a treasure. Hence it won't be surprised to see old white tea commanding a high price after 7 years.

White tea selling 800 RMB

The tea is yellowish in colour

 The tea has a slight sweet taste with a pleasant aroma. Old white tea has different type of fragrance, like fragrance of flowers and fruits, etc.

Old Shou Mei 

Ever since my first cup of old Shou Mei, I begin to like this tea. I have since collected a few tea cakes in case the price go up in future due to inflation.

Characteristics of a good teapot

Set of mangosteen teapots

Teapot is used to brew tea, it is an essential equipment to have if you are interested in the art of tea drinking. If you possess a good teapot, it certainly brings you a lot of pleasure in your pursue of tea art culture and enrich your life through endless sessions of tea drinking. It is life time passion.

If you want a teapot just for tea drinking purpose, you need not spend a lot of money to look for the special one. A good teapot can fulfill this function. You can make tea from it, enjoy your tea and at the same time admire the artistic aspects associated with it; such as its shape, clay, colour and texture. But how to select a good teapot? Generally, there are a few things to look for in selecting a good teapot to make tea.

First on the list is the workmanship. A good teapot is professionally made and every detail (from the lid to the handle) is accurately/ proportionately executed by the potter. When you look at the teapot, it pleases you, all your senses come alive. This is the magic of good workmanship.

Second is the clay, an important factor for good teapots. A good potter is very particular about the clay he uses to make the teapot. Good clay will enhance the beauty of the teapot. Not only it is pleasing to the eye, the clay has to be clean and not tarnished after use. If the teapot is covered with muddy stuff, most likely it has been treated to make it look old and valuable. As teapots are used to brew tea, cleanliness is of paramount importance.

Third is form which can be subjective as it depends on individual's taste and preference. Form means the shape of teapots which can be round, square segmented or any shape that mimic things of nature. If workmanship is good, the form can further be enhanced through the skills and artistic talents of the potters.  Very rarely one will find a teapot with good clay and form but lousy workmanship. A good teapot coming out from a renown potter often possesses these qualities.

If you want a teapot that is worth collecting and at the same time functional (means brewing tea occasionally), then you may consider a teapot made by some known potter. It need not be a grand master in the trade. A potter who has a bit of fame is sufficient. He may be a trainee or a assistant craft-master or even a craftsman. As long as you know the person who made the teapot, it is something to treasure as it is his creation. In this case, the bigger the name, the more costly is the teapot. Also beware of fakes as there are a lot of people making a fortune of selling fake teapots. Here I means the potters are not the ones who made the teapots. Rather, people are using big names to enhance the value of the teapots.

Collecting good teapots is no easy task. It needs years of experience and costs lots of money and obviously plenty of frustrations.

Below are some examples of good teapots.

By a renown potter

By a granf master

Potter unknown

Supposedly by Shao Dahen

Zisha clay

Two old teapots, one was given by a colleague and the other bought in a shop in Marina Square. I really like the zisha clay of the early years. It was of such high quality and purity that reflected on the teapots it produced.

The zisha clay was of the finest quality, noticeable from the shine produced on the body of the pots. Undoubtedly, teapots from the early years were all made from good yixing zisha clay. There was no concern of buying teapots made from fake clay or chemical-tainted materials. There was plenty of good clay around and authority did not bother to impose any ban on mining the zisha clay.

Raw zisha clay

With the ever increasing production of zisha ware for export, the authority in the Yixing County eventually imposed a ban on mining zisha clay from the famous Yellow Dragon Mountain which supposedly produced the finest zisha clay in the region. The rationale behind this ban was to preserve the precious resources for the future generations. However, most potters had already started hoarding the clay long before the ban was imposed. Some potters when interviewed, revealed that they had stored enough clay to last them a lifetime. There was even someone who had 3000 tonnes of clay in his ware house.

Yellow Dragon Mountain, now 1/3 its original height

Yellow Dragon Mountain site

In those early days, no body paid attention to the clay used to make teapots. The potters also didn't bother to emphasize the clay they used. It was understood that all the clay used must have come from the Yellow Dragon Mountain. Today, you will find potters and promoters alike would always highlight the premium clay used in their teapots. They used terms that described the clay and these terms were unheard of during those years.

Hoarding of zisha clay by potter's family

Globular pot and wild puerh

I uploaded this video to Youtube quite some time ago.

This is a classic ball-filtered teapot made in the 1970s. The zisha clay was of fine quality, made for export to the Japanese market. Some appeared in markets of South East Asia. I managed to get two from a shop and sold one to a Taiwanese friend.

The tea bricks were from the Menghai factory, made in March 2004. The tea was harvested from Yiwu tea mountain, from tea trees grew in the wild. These tea trees grew on mountain where no artificial fertilisers were used. Today, puerh processed from wild tea trees is in short supply, pushing the price skyrocket high. For instance, tea from the Mun Song region can comman a price of over 10k rmb per kg due to scarcity. Tea from Bin Daou or Lao Banzhang also command very high price in the tea market. This is evident from the fact that tea farmers in those tea producing regions all live in huge brick houses that are mordern and elegantly built. It is rather irony to see so many beautiful houses in the miidle of tea plantation on mountains.

Simple yet elegant

Some teapot designs are simple yet elegant. These simple teapots are like evergreen trees, you won't get tired with such simple shapes.

These teapots won't cost collectors a lot of money during those early years. They are fantastic for brewing green tea due to a broad body. As you know, green tea consists of tea leaves that rolled into small little lumps. These small lumps need space to expand when they are put in the pot with hot water. A big belly in the pot is essential for the tea leaves to expand and release the frsgrance. Inevtably, you need a broad base teapot to brew a pot of good green tea.

Another simple teapot is the humble MengChen Hu, the one people often use to brew kungfu tea. These are the evergreen treees of teapots that will forever be tea drinkers' favourite choice when brewing tea.

Unusual dragon head pot

The dragon head teapot was the brain child of Shao Dahen, a reknown potter even the teapot master Gu Jingzhou himself admired. Gu once said Shao was the greatest potter ever lived.

Teapot made by Shao Dahen

The dragon heat teapot featured a movable head where the tonge can stick out from its mouth when the pot is tilted to pour tea out. One side of the body featured a half dragon partially immersed in the rough seas while the the other side featured a fish turning in waves. The teapot has a traditional name of 'fish turning into dragon'.

This teapot was mass produced in the early years. But there are some good pieces made during the early Republic era, post 1911. Many great potters of that perood also like to make this teapot. The notable one was Huang Yulin whose dragon head teapot became the standard for others to imitate. Such an adorable design, a teapot with movable parts.

The above teapot was brought over from China and displayed in an exhibition in the 1990s. The asking price of $11999 was just too high for the collectors then. As i knew the exhibitors, i got it for a much lower price after the exhition. I believed this was a piece made in the later years of the Republic era. I stiill could not figured out who thr potter was.

My twin plum blossoms teapots

These plum blossoms teapots are lovely, good for their worth. When i bought them, they cost little money. But over the many years of using them to brew tea, a glossy shine developed on the pots.

All Yixing teapots have this characteristic. As the pots are not glazed on the outside, years of using them will develop the shine on the teapots. You need to wipe the teapots constantly after the tea making sessions. There is no short cut. It is hard work but i enjoy taking good care of them.

The special one

When i first saw this teapot, it was like love at first sight. I got attracted by the gold that was used to wrap around the edge of the lid and the rim of the body. Later i found out that these were the teapots polished to a brilliant shine. Most of them were exported to the Thai market, for the king. But this one was for the imperial court of the Qing dynasty.

The owner asked for a high price. As i liked it so much, i had to buy it.

It was good to brew kungfu tea. But nowadays i seldom use it to brew tea for fear that i might break it accidentally. You know, it is not easy to find another similar teapot, not to mention the years of history behind it.

Stars gazing

I bought this crystal ball some time ago.

When you watch it under strong sunlight, the effect is amazing. Plenty of shooting stars, they appear everywhere.

I like stars gazing but i do not have the equipment to do it. I guess this is the clasest thing i can do to enjoy shooting stars whenever there is light.

Xi Yuqin

I bought this elegant teapot from a shop in the late 1980s. I did not know who the potter was until I saw a picture showing her work in an old book on teapots. Her name was Xi Yuqin and the teapot she made was a pumpkin teapot. Later I found out that she was active in the 1970s where she learned the art of teapot making from a old renown potter,

An elegant teapot

Many years later, this design of teapot appeared in the market. I bought a few to keep as my stock. Yet a few years later, there was a slight modification to this design. The handle became thicker and no more in a curved shape. It was all straight through, at 90 degrees. It was made this way as the original design would cause the handle of the teapot to break during transportation. The new design was robust. I did not buy any of the teapot of this new design. Although it was robust, it wasn't elegant and looked rather awkward. The original teapot looked lively and perfect.

Pumpkin teapot

Xi Yuqin

Ding Yaping's hexagonal teapot

A beautiful hexagonal Yixing teapot. It was made by a renown potter by the name of Ding Yaping.

The Zisha clay is of excellent quality, so is the workmanship. Such teapot is made by joining clay, segment by segment to achieve a hexagonal shape. The biggest problem is firing to harden the clay. Distortion and warping genenally cause such teapot design to be rejected. It is often said that one square shape is worth 10 round shape due to high reject rate. This hexagonal shape is even more difficult to make.

 

Teapot by Ding Yaping

Seal of Ding Yaping

Chestnut teapot

Here is a teapot made by potter by the name of Master Zhang. He is a nephew of Jiang Rong, a great Yixing master who was famous in designing and making teapots that copied things of nature. She was considered as the best realist in Yixing who could imitate anything from insects to fruits in her designs of teapots. A great potter in Yixing.

This teapot was made by Zhang under the supervision of Jiang Rong, his aunt. The seal of the teapot read "made/supervised by Jiang Rong".  Jiang Rong herself had made several chestnut teapots. They are really lovely, just like real chestnuts, yet they can be used to brew a pot of good chinese tea.

Chesnut teapot

Zhang and Jiang Rong

Picture taken from a megazine

Teapots for kungfu tea

Add caption

In this region, people like to brew tea using very small teapots. These teapots are not costly and you don't waste tea leaves using them. It is also a tradition passed down from Hokkien. Hokkien people called it "kungfu" tea. Just like learning kungfu, one has to follow every step in the traditional way using a lot of tea utensils. From boiling water, selecting tea, warming the untensils, etc, etc, you may have to wait up to 15 minutes just to be served with a small cup of chinese tea. Then the process repeats again for the 2nd cup if you have the patient and time. Otherwise, get a big teapot and you can enjoy as much tea as you want in a short time. Then again, you may lose out on the fun of this rigorous procedure they call the art of tea drinking which in a way can slow down your heart beat and prolong  your life.

In those early years, i liked to roam around in down town area to look for a good buy. I once bumped into a shop in Bukit Merah selling teapots and tea ware. It was not common to find such shop in this area where tourists do not come. The locals are also not keen in tea drinking. So one would expect the business to be bad. True enough, i spotted some small teapots selling for $3.50 per piece (top photo). I got interested in them and asked the shop owner how many he had in the shop as i knew they were good quality old Yixing teapots. He told me about 130 plus. Then i told him i wanted all of them. He was surprised that i wanted all. I had to tell him that i needed them as i was selling "bak kut teh", a hawker dish that served spare ribs (pork ribs) soup and rice with chinese tea and a lot of teapots were needed. After hearing that he even give me a discount. I had a laugh as i did not want him to be suspicious and did not want to sell me all. Today these teapots are longer in the market they cost quite a bit.

Pork ribs soup - very delicious

This small teapot (photo below) is known as XiShi Hu, made in the 1980s in Yixing China. The design is simple yet elegant and very ideal for kungfu tea. Chinese Tea House imported quite a lot of them from the Yixing factory. As i knew the people in the company, i went to their ware house and bought 2 hundred pieces of these little black devils. I just like to buy in large quantities in case i wanted to set up my own shop when i retire. These teapots are again things of the past, a product of an era long forgotten by most.

China Yixing

Black xisih hu

Singapore Chinese Tea House

Chinese Tea House was a tea appreciation company established in the 1980s in Singapore. The name reminded people of the famous movie of 1980s entitled Tea House which was produced by China. The movie was about a series of events that happened in China through story telling that centred on tea drinking and its culture. It was a very good movie with good actors and a good story line. The owner of Chinese Tea House was quick to register the company with the authority using the same name of the movie TeaHouse.

The company was formed by a group of 20 people who were tea drinking enthusiats. They were all close friends who appreciated tea drinking and associated tea culture. Initially, the company was located in a unit in a shopping centre in down town area. It offered tea drinkers a wide selection of chinese tea and customers were charged on a per head basis. There was no restriction on time and customers could spend the whole morning appreciating Chinese tea using the tea ware provided by the company. Besides providing tea appreciation sessions to the public, the company also sold a variety of Chinese tea and tea ware, books and megazines and other sourvenirs. During the Singapore Book Fair that was organised yearly, the company also had a unit  in the exhibition hall where chinese tea, tea ware and tea culture were introduced to the public.

The company imported tea, tea ware and accessories from Taiwan and China. Business was good and the demand of tea and associted products was great. To cater for the need of this group of tea drinkers, the company started introducing a series of teapots bearing the seal of Chinese Tea House. These teapots were well received by the public. The sale of these teapots and tea ware during exhibitions organised during Book Fair and Moon Cake festivals enabled the company to survive through all these years.

Below is the picture of one of those teapots commissioned by the company and made by potters from Yixing bearing Chinese Tea House logo. These teapots were designed and made by the company owned by Xu Sihai, a reknown teapot collector from Shanghai who owned a museum that housed some of the best teapots of the woeld. These teapots were made by potters in his company but they were supervised by Sihai himself. The seal under the lid read made and supervised by Sihai.

Teapot of Chinese Tea House

Chinese Tea House

At the height of its business, Chinese Tea House used to operate from 3 outlets and one ware house. As competition got worse, revenue from tea business dwindled. With high rental and labour cost, the company eventually operated from a ware house in a flated factory. Business sustained for a few more years under forever increasing business costs.

Due to to harsh operating conditions and difficult business circumstances, Chinese Tea House eventually ceased operation in Singapore last year. These teapots become a part of its history. Luckily, i owned a part of this history.

P.S. Articles appeared in a megazine published by a Taiwanese company on Chinese Tea House.

An outlet of Chinese Tea House

Chinese Tea House outlet at Marina Square Shopping Centre

Kao XiangJun

Kao XiangJun, a renown potter from Yixing, was a student of Li Pifang.

Her teapots were so elegantly made that one can spent hours admiring them, let alone use them to brew tea. Teapots made by talented potter such as Kao XiangJun are not easy to get as they are very sought after by collectors.

For instance, the teapot below possesses such an elegance and fineness that no matter what angle you look at it, you will still like it. It is so perfectly made that you can enjoy its beauty for a long time. This is what got me attracted to collecting teapots in those early years. Looking at beautiful teapots, to me, is a good way to relax your body, refresh your soul and rejuvenate your mind.

I do have a teapot made by Kao XiangJun. It is a segmented shaped teapot made in the early days of her career in the Yixing Factory. The seal at the back of the teapot indicated her name. The hexagonal shaped teapot was the early product coming out ftom the factory. No mistake about its maker.

Kao XiangJun